Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5857

5857 Responsibility.... mind and free will....

January 20, 1954: Book 63

You yourselves bear great responsibility for your soul, i.e., the spiritual in you should develop upwards through your will.... Your thinking and will should be directed towards finding the connection with above, with the kingdom of light, for you come from the abyss and should strive upwards. The human being is endowed with intellect and free will and he should use this same intellect and his will in the right way. He can just as well strive downwards, i.e. demand everything that draws his soul.... the spiritual into himself.... But for this purpose he was given the right to strive upwards. However, the intellect was given to him for this purpose, so that he will think carefully about the aim he is striving for. And his intellect is influenced by God’s word during his earthly life.... He is constantly informed of what lies within God's will, what he should strive for and what he should avoid or refrain from. God's will is made known to him so that he can mentally deal with it during his earthly life, so that he can decide between God's will and his own will, which at first is certainly still very downwardly inclined but can change. The human being bears the responsibility for his soul, for that which is imperishable, for his own I..... For even if he himself passes away and therefore often takes it lightly and often leaves the soul in spiritual distress, it is only his body which passes away.... he himself, his I, his soul, remains, and it enters the kingdom of the beyond in the state into which he has placed it on earth through his way of life.... The soul shall develop upwards.... All human activity promotes or hinders this development. The human being is, as it were, the determiner.... because his intellect and his will are active. Yet both often act irresponsibly towards the soul.... the spiritual substance, which only expresses itself instinctively in its cover, thus determines the human being, but should be released from its cover by the human being's intellect and will, which easily happens if the human being does in good will what is preached to him through the word of God.... if he practices love, which now also dissolves the soul's cover and clears the way for it to ascend.... Because the human being can think and want, therefore he also has the responsibility towards his soul, or also.... the soul with all its urges from its previous time of development finds its master in the intellect and free will, which can now certainly join its urges as well as oppose them.... Thus the human being can put in order what is still impulsive within himself because he has enough aids at his disposal and the most effective aid is the word of God, which gives him precise instructions, the observance of which will certainly also bring salvation to the soul. Without intellect and free will the human being could not be held to account.... but without intellect and free will the soul would never reach perfection either.... And therefore you humans should always be and remain aware of the fact that you yourselves must help your soul to mature, that you yourselves redeem your own self from the abyss if you let your intellect and free will become active in the right way.... when you reflect on everything you are taught through God’s word. And if you now endeavour to live in accordance with this divine word, if you consciously place your will under God's will and His will can now also come alive in you.... then you will fulfil your task of earthly life, then you will help your soul to ascend, then you will enter the kingdom of light, the kingdom of life and beatitude, even after the death of your body....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers